Broadcast
Technicolor is on a mission to increase diversity and tackle the VFX industry’s talent shortage.
The dial is ever so slowly nudging to parity in the entertainment industry. This year more women than ever before were nominated for Academy Awards in non-gender specific (non-acting) categories – and the Oscar ceremony saw more women take the stage winning or co-winning in categories including Best Documentary Feature, Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Short, and Achievements in Sound Editing, Production Design and Costume Design (though none were nominated for directing).
It’s also the year in which Technicolor’s Maxine Gervais (Black Panther) became the first woman to win a Hollywood Professional Association award for Outstanding Color Grading.
Among the many male dominated industry crafts, though, VFX stands out. The global pipeline of potential VFX talent graduating from university averages just 21 percent female. Milk co-founder Sara Bennett remains the only woman VFX supervisor to win an Oscar (for 2016’s Ex Machina); Suzanne Benson the sole female VFX artist won for Aliens back in 1986.
At the same time, the exploding demand for content is straining the limited pool of talented VFX artists and technologists in the industry.
Rachel Matchett, worldwide head of Technicolor VFX, believes that creative diversity is a solution to the talent shortage.
She says, “No one came to my college when I was growing up and talked about VFX but we are actively doing that now and the more we can expose the opportunities to colleges and to parents, then the better chance of finding even more talent regardless of gender and particularly to grow the female workforce.”
Matchett has spent two decades in the industry moving through the ranks to achieve a leadership position where she hopes to affect change. After a decade at sister facility MPC she now heads up Technicolor VFX, a ‘boutique’ division within the wider group spanning sites in LA, Toronto and London focussed on episodic TV drama
“My first step is to make sure I am promoting and pushing female leadership to have the respect of the creative team around them,” she says.
To that end, she promoted Kate Warburton, Tricia Pifer and Robin Nozetz to executive produce the division in London, LA and Toronto respectively.
“Everybody knows it’s a male dominated industry,” she says. “A lot of women feel the need to have a voice but are not sure how to articulate it and be listened to. The more you get women into senior leadership the more they will have the ability to nurture future female talent.”
Her goal echoes that of her boss, Technicolor’s global president of post, Sherri Potter. Her policies aim to double the industry average across the organisation to 40 percent female and to raise that to 50 percent in 2020. For Matchett, that means recruiting or promoting at least 75 female staff.
Matchett, who cites producer Claire Simpson (Coraline, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) as an influence and inspiration on her career, is a Women in Film and TV mentor and takes an active role in Access VFX, a cross-industry initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the VFX industry.
One challenge is to overcome the perception of VFX as a traditional computer graphics-based job, and to see it as a career that offers unlimited opportunities to be highly creative and to do ground breaking work.
“I really feel there is so much talent that doesn’t get tapped into and is not given a crack of the whip. It’s about helping women into the workplace and giving them the confidence to make mistakes because that’s the only way you can grow.”
She says she hasn’t “outwardly witnessed” sexism at first hand but suggests that a lack of diversity is often down to barriers in building relationships with male hierarchy.
“A lot of VFX is about relationship building with clients but in the creative world your work should speak for itself. You could have a hundred different showreels and not put any artist names to it and simply pick out the work you like. That would be true meritocracy.”
Indeed, Lauren McCallum, Global MD of Technicolor’s Mill Film, contends that diversity and inclusiveness can enhance the VFX creative process by delivering more engaging content.
“The reality is that many of us go to the cinema because we want to experience something new and different,” she says. “If you don't change the range of perspectives contributing to the creative process, the likelihood of really reaching that full artistic potential is limited.”
Mill Film adheres to the same aggressive targets to reach gender balance in its creative workforce and by the end of 2018 had a female artist community representing 41% of its total.
A frequent assertion heard in VFX is that women don’t pursue their careers because it’s too difficult to endure the punishing lifestyle that can demand 16-hour days for weeks on end and still have a family. Yet the idea that many are not self-selecting out of the industry needs serious consideration.
“It is a deadline intensive environment and one push we are making at Technicolor is to develop software tools such as [in house pipeline] Pulse to benefit a quick turnaround and to keep the guesswork out of what clients need to do,” Matchett says. “The level of experience of a director needs to be honed as well. Many are not used to dealing with all aspect of VFX so part of the job is helping them understand what CG can do for them while managing our teams so that they don’t burn out.”
Recent work at Technicolor VFX includes over 600 2D and CG shots as sole vendor on BBC and HBO period drama Gentleman Jack for writer director Sally Wainwright. Other projects include 150 shots on The Spanish Princess for Starz and 350 shots on Channel 4 mini-series Chimerica including recreations of Tiananmen Square in 1989.
That’s just out of London. Matchett also has overall responsibility for shows including True Detective, The Loudest Voice and Big Little Lies out of LA andFrontier out of Toronto.
“With a two and half hour feature you have a good idea of the shot count and work involved but episodic is more of a moveable feast,” she says. “What was budgeted for in episode 8 may have changed by the time they get around to shooting it. So, until they shoot each episode you’re never quite sure what are going to be hit with. Schedules are challenging and expectations are an all time high but the diversity of work makes it creatively exciting.”
Matchett admits it will take another few years before industry initiatives like outreach to higher education begin to generate a significantly wider pool of female talent.
“The ability to target a certain percentage is a strong statement but it can’t simply be words and no action. It’s something that you need to believe in and push for.”
Thanks for Sharing your detailed review on this Article. This Post will obviously help a lot of perople. PlayBox is the best online Streaming App for android users. Check the below links to know more about the niche topics.
ReplyDeleteFree Movies Online iOS,
PlayBox HD Watch Online,
PlayBox Online Free,
PlayBox Internet TV Online,